Monday, September 29, 2008

I'm in chains ...



... at least that's what I feel like! I'm all caught up in work. But let me tell you - it's a lot of fun!

I really enjoy working with the kids. Especially the English lessons are extremely funny and cool. Just today we learned about the United Kingdom and it's pretty funny to get them pronounce "Northern Ireland" right *giggle* cause "th" is really hard for Germans. In most cases it sounds like "norsern" "nordern" or "norfern". Just watch some old SChwarzenegger movies and you'll see what I mean ;)

The lesson I'm looking forward to this week will be Geography. We're talking about the solarsystem and I will have them literally "act it out". They're going to rotate around each other and the guy in the middle will have a flash light to show how lunar and solar eclipses work.
I hope the students will have lots of fun.

Ok, stay tuned for more glimpses into my classroom!
Luv Julia

P.S.: Thanks for PR 2 by the way :D

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Thursday Thirteen #4




First of all - thanks for visiting last week. I wanted to tell you that the little colored tomatoes were de-li-cious!

And now for something completely different ...

Todays Thursday Thirteen is a little test and a great exercise for your brain. If you want to participate, take a piece of paper before reading on - just a normal sheet - and a pen, and get ready to flex those brain-muscles. This test is time limited. You've got 2 minutes, so set your alarm-clock and be honest ;) Got everything? Then go:
  1. Read through all the instructions before you do anything!
  2. Write your first and your last name in the upper right corner of the sheet.
  3. Draw 5 small squares on the upper part of the sheet.
  4. Pencil a * (star) into each suare.
  5. Sign the sheet with your last name in the lower right corner.
  6. Turn the sheet upside down and write down your date of birth.
  7. Put the sheet back in to normal position and write your first loves name underneath the squares.
  8. Write the letter "X" into the lower left corner of the sheet.
  9. Draw a circle around the "X" you've just written.
  10. Use the lower part of the sheet to solve the following calculation: 6+9-3x3-17
  11. Underline the result twice.
  12. Now add together all the numbers on your sheet (don't forget you brith date!)
  13. And now, after you've first of all read all the instructions, just do what you are asked for in point No.2 !

I hope you enjoyed the test and succeeded in passing it :)
Happy TT!

Luv Julia



Monday, September 15, 2008

The First Time I Ever ...

... spent a day at school as a real teacher

Wow - what an experience. Today I officially signed my contract and pledged allegiance to the bavarian state, my new employer. It felt strange to enter the school afterwards for the first official teachers-meeting of the year. We got our keys and were told which classes and subjects we're goin to teach and - oh and this was the best - were introduced and treated as colleagues!!! It was sooooo great I still can't get the smile of my face. Of course it was scary as well, cause literally everything is new for me - the other teachers the pupils, the school, the job - all of it! But life would be boring without challenges, wouldn't it?

At least I have a lovely colleague, a 26-year-old elementary teacher who also had her first day today. It's much easier if you have a fellow sufferer. She lives nearby and we will carpool as well.

And you know what? A couple of posts ago I wrote that I was in dire need of a decent bag, that offers enough space and doesn't look like sh*t. I thought about getting one of those old-school leather bags, but my girls (former bar colleagues) surprised me with this beautiful bag:



So - thanks very much you gorgous hotties *gropesandsmooches* I will never forget working with you, we shared some of the best moments in my life so far!

Finally for my girls, me and you - just relax, kick of your shoes and enjoy 4 minutes of peace and one of the best singers ever:



Luv Julia

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Thursday Thirteen #3


Today's Thursday 13 was inspired by this mornings shopping tour. While buying the vegetables for tonights dinner at the grocery sotre I saw them - a pack of wonderfully different colored and shaped small tomatoes. And because I didn't have a better topic for this weeks TT anyway, I decided to post 13 interesting facts about TOMATOES:

1.) First of all a picture of the tomatoes I bought today. They were sold in a box labelled "wild
wonders". It's a variety of cherry tomatoes, aren't they beautiful?




2.) Tomatoes inspired John de Bello to produce his series
"Attack of the Killertomatoes", staring the young George
Clooney in the sequel "Return of the Killertomatoes"

3.) The latin term for tomato is Solanum lycopersicum, meaning "wolf peach". There are at least 10,000 varieties of tomatoes (from the small marble-sized cherry one to the Ponderosa, which can weigh over three pounds).


4.) Tomatoes are fruits from the botanic point of view! As
well as eggplants, cucumbers, pumpkins and zucchinis.
But in the culinary world and in some old laws tomatoes
are seen classified as vegetables.

5.) Since the 1940's, "La Tomatina" takes place on the last
Wednesday of August. Then 20000 - 40000 people meet
in the town of Bunol in Spain to be part of the big tomato
fight.



6.) The worlds biggest tomato weighed 3.5 kg, or 7 lb 12 oz! An average size tomato has 148 gram, or 5 oz, and boasts only 35 calories.

7.) In 2003 Rob Baur succeded in breeding a "Tomacco"-plant, inspired by the "Simpsons" episode "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)". It is a tomato-plant hybrid that also contains small amounts of nicotine. It is possible because they both belong to the nightshades, also including potato and belladonna.

8.) Tomatoes were first cultivated in 700 AD by Aztecs and Incas. Explorers returning from Mexico introduced the tomato into Europe, where it was first mentioned in 1556. The French called it "the apple of love," the Germans "the apple of paradise."

9.) Tomatoes are rich in vitamins A and C and fibre, and are cholesterol free. The consumption of lycopene - the stuff that makes tomatoes red - may prevent cancer.

10.) The tomato is the most popular fruit of the world, with over 60 million tons produced every year.

11.) Tomato juice is the official state beverage of Ohio. Arkansas' official state vegetable is the vine ripe pink tomato (of South Arkansas).


12.) Until the 1800's tomatoes were thought to be poisonous. Though some claimed that they have aphrodisiac powers.

13.) And last but not least, my favorite tomato recipe - Bruschetta:


That's it folks, hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to comment, cause I follow ;) and I don't mind if you drop a card as well.

Luv Julia

Monday, September 8, 2008

Holiday! Celebrate!

Ok here we go - the official holiday round up!

As I already told you, I spent a week at the wonderful lake Chiemsee. My roommate and I rented a small appartment on a farm about 5 miles away from the lake. It looked like this:



As you can see it was very quiet there, the next village was about 1,5 mile away. That's why our only neighbours where the farmer's cows and cats:



Luckily we had good weather, so we spent most days at the lake, swimming and cruising around with a little boat:




On the third day we had to do the tourist stuff ;) we visited the beautiful castle built by Ludwig II and the monasteries - all of them are located on little islands in the middle of the lake. We took one of the official ferries to get there:





Well, now you know what we did, it wasn't much, most of the time we just chilled or bathed in the sun :)
But still it was a wonderful holiday, very relaxing and I really soaked in a lot of fresh energy to get things properly started in a week when school starts here.

Greets Julia

Friday, September 5, 2008

Top Droppers, Topless, Topping

Hi folks!

I'm back from my wonderful holidays at the Chiemsee, I'm relaxed and tanned and I will tease you with a full record and pics soon.

But first of all - THANK YOU!!! - to last months Top Droppers, namly:







Topless - oh not what you think, but the boat we used to cross the Chiemsee on a sunny day was topless ;)



Topping:

I won!!! I won the bonus prize for "funniest post" at Hot-O's contest. That's 15$ cash from ThaCash.com
Yeah!

Greets Julia

To boldly go where no man has gone before ...

... well maybe some people have gone there before, but for me it's all new territory - dark and scary!
What I'm talking about? My own website of course!

I really want my own domain and I will get it as soon as I start working, so I can afford it. The only problem I had so far was my lacking knowledge about the subject. Have you ever tried to search for the right web host? It's bottomless like quicksand - Google spits out 155.000.000 hits for "web hosting". No, no, no - there's no way I check all of those by myself!

Luckily other people did this for me. The guys from webhostingrating.com compared and rated web hosting companies, using parameters like affordability, customer satisfaction and technical support. They did a really good job and offer a clear strcuture that makes it easy for everybody - from blogger to entrepreneur - to navigate and find the matching offer for your needs. For me it might be more important that it is not too expensive, others might need more space or unlimited traffic - anyway, you will find it there.

They also offer customer reviews and articles on a variety of topics. I found the one about domain names very interesting and helpful.

So if you're planning to enter unknown territory and do your OWN website, make sure to get the best consultation at webhostingrating.com . I definitely will ;)

Greets Julia

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Thursday Thirteen #2

First of all thanks to bluestartopics for this nice TT header! The idea was to make intenational headers and this is the german one. As I am german and this one is actually very nice, too, it wasn't hard to make my choice :)

Concerning todays TT my topic relates to my last post.

13 things I found while clearing out and cleaning up:
  1. ) Old Computer Games - Day of the Tentacle for example, a real classic
  2. ) Books - mainly study books, burried under stacks of paper
  3. ) Dancing shoes - in a box in my cupboard. I was shocked when I realized for how long I haven't been on a ballroom-dancefloor! New mission: go dancing before the year is over!
  4. ) Pens and other office stuff - everything that IÄm normally searchging for for hours.
  5. ) CDs and CD-covers - and I thought some of them were lost forever
  6. ) Photographs
  7. ) Make up - can you imagine how many different shades of grey and pink eyeshadow one girl can have? And we're not talking about my collection of lipsticks, yet.
  8. ) Ligthers - now that I quit smoking it seems that I hid about 20 of them somewhere in my deskdrawers, though I never found a single one when I needed it.
  9. ) Hairband, bobby pins and hair grips - don't know here htese all come from ;)
  10. ) Sheet music - tons of ...
  11. ) Fireworks - no worries, it's the undangerous stuff they sell to kids as well. Must be left overs from last years sylvester
  12. ) Small rubber football - needs a bit air, otherwise still fine.
  13. ) Dust, dust and more dust, mixed with cat hair - *sigh*

Short round up: We're not finished, yet, but we're willing to fulfil the task!

Did you ever find strange or funny stuff while clearing out? Maybe even something creepy?
Let me know and enjoy your Thursday Thirteen :)

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

That's the sound of me, working on the chain gang!

Hi folks,

though I know about the sad background of the song,I really love it. It's so powerful and Sam has such a great voice, just listen and enjoy:



And you know what? It really gives you the xtra push needed while working hard, which helped me a lot to survive day 1 of our annual "clearing out and cleaning up"- day(s).
Let's throw a short glance at today's accomplishments:

The point of departure:
  • our living room, about 20 m²
  • two people - the bald guy and me
  • two desks, 1 antique dresser, 3 single book shelves and 2 large storage racks, a couple of stackable boxes, endless numbers of smaller and bigger folders and stacks of paper - most of them remains of my exams
  • lots of stuff that found its way into our roomduring the last year, it's unbelievable what you can find in your own home!
The interim result so far:

  • 6 hours of work
  • 66 pounds of paper - honestly!!! - I couldn't believe it when I looked at the scale.
  • 2 big bags full with garbage
  • 1 box with different stuff, things you don't really need, but can't throw away either
  • my back hurts and the bald guy has a headache
  • it will take as at least another two days to finish this *sigh*
But still - I want to finish this! I want to start in my new life without old tasks latching onto me. And to be honest - it feels pretty good afterwards. It frees you somehow.
There's only one more thing that concerns me:

Should I get rid of my tape collection - you know those little things, we used to record music on from the radio when we were younger and couldn't use iTunes or emule. I don't know if I will ever listen to them again, but somehow thy are a part of me!

What do you think? Is it important to keep stuff like that or does it slow our moving forward in life down?

Greets Julia

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Addicted to love? - Oh, I wish ...

... but it's even worse.
My love for chocolate is not really an addiction, it's genetic I guess, something like the next step of evolution.
Stopped smoking a week ago and neither have the craving for a cig nor the longing for food. Actually I feel pretty good.

No, no, no, my worst addiction is one that makes me waste precious time! I'm ashamed, but I must admit that I'm a World of Warcraft victim. I spend hours in front of my PC, solving quests and leveling my characters up. And whatever you think now - you CAN'T just play for an hour a day. Believe me! I ofr example try to restrict myself by playing only every second day, and from time to time I put a "time-out" on me and don't play for a week or two.

Right now it's no problem at all to play and still get the stuff done that has to be done, and moreover spend quite a lot of time in the blogosphere. I have holidays and nothing to do all day long, but I really have to make this work when I start with a regular job in September.

On the other hand I already met people who literally are addicted to online-gaming and I think I'm still far away from that. I eat, I slepp, I have a "real" life and social contacts, I don't miss appointments I fullfiil duties and do the jobs I have to. But you see, this could become a serious problem if you're not aware of how much time you really spend with gaming.

Do yu have experiences with that topic? I'd like to know what you think about it!

Love Julia

Friday, August 22, 2008

I feel like Evita!

Cause the money hopefully keeps rooling in:



As I told you I joined Bloggerwave to earn some money on the side. Then a good friend gave me the advice to join Socialspark as well, which I did.

Doing this I remembered that I tried to join PPP half a year ago, but was always rejected. They said it had too much non-original content (memes, pics, videos). Those of you who ever tried know how strict they are:
  • All posts must be in English on an English Blog.
  • Your blog must be at least 90 days old with at least 20 pre-existing posts.
  • Your last regular post must have been within the past 7 days.
  • Content must be original. You may not post the same content on different blogs.
Quite a list isn't it?
But I thought "Well, let's have a look at PPP, you still have an acoount there, maybe I can manage to fulfill their requirements this time. So I registered my blog and thought that they would tell me again that my blog is not approved.
And guess what? I am an approved PPP-blogger now! I don't know what makes the difference, but I'm happy about it.
You know my goal still is to visit the USA during next years summer holidays!

But what about you? Do you blog for money? What will you use the extra money for? Do you think blogging for money sucks? share your opinion and experiences!

Love Julia

P.S.: Thanks to everybody for visiting: Thursday Thirteeners, Entrecard droppers and most of all those who "just" stop by to read what I have to say.

To all these unsticky persons

Remember the post I wrote a few days ago about being stuck in weight? If not you might read it here.

Well, if you've never faced those problems, if you're young and beautiful and if your favorite leisure time activities is to participate in Beauty Contests - "Look of the year" offers you a great chance.
Maybe you always thought about becoming a model and didn't know how to start or couldn't afford the traveling. Maybe you already decided to work as a model, but your career could need some initial aid, Look of the year is the answer to your questions.
Just send in some pictures and get spotted by intenational model agencies.

So giddy up you skinny bi***es!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Thursday Thirteen #1

Hi folks,

here I am starting all over again. So what is my first TT-post after 6 months goin to be about?

Well I thought about giving you a list of13 literature classics I had to read for my literature exams in anglistics. I bet you know all of them, have read some of them, even like a few and maybe I can inspire you to grab one of those and have a look at it again. Books change - if you look at them after 10 years you might find that your point of view on them has changed, that you see and understand different things now.

So here we go:

1.) The picture of Dorian Gray - by Oscar Wilde

2.) Dracula - by Bram Stoker

3.) Ecotopia - by Ernest Callenbach

4.) Pride and Prejudice - by Jane Austen

5.) The Scarlett Letter - by Nathaniel Hawthorne

6.) Kim - by Rudyard Kipling

7.) A Handmaid's Tale - by Margaret Atwood

8.) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - by Mark Twain

9.) Salome - by Oscar Wilde

10.) Death of a Salesman - by Arthur Mille

11.) The Great Gatsby - by F. Scott Fitzgerald

12.) Hills like White Elephants - by Ernest Hemmingway

13.) She walks in beauty - by Lord Byron

Ok, so grab a book and get started :) Let me know if you know these books and what you think about them ...

Have fun and thanks for enjoying this TT!

Love Julia

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Stuck in a moment you can't get out of ...

... or better said in a size.

Since March I've been ona diet now. Nothing hard to do, no harsh restrictions, no bad-ass workout. Actually all I did was:
  • having breakfast (I had to get used to the fact, that a cigarette and a glass of juice is not the adequat start in the day),
  • avoiding carbs after after lunch
  • eating three full, healthy meals a day instead of rummaging through the fridge every thirty minutes
  • taking my bike instead of the bus or the car
  • avoid fast food and convenience food as well as everything that is fried
  • and - ok, it can't be all easy, can it? - reducing my chocolate consumption :(
It really wasn't that hard to do and I lost 22 pounds that way. And then it semmed that my scale just stuck ...
I just didn't lose or gain anything anymore.
As I don't want to put more food restrictions on me, I thought about doing more sport, but don't know which. Any suggestions?

Love Julia

P.S.: Credits to U2 for a good headline :) and thanks for a great song!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The hottest O in town

Have you ever thought about hot "O"s? Here's my Top10:


#10) O like Oasis
Bad boys like the Gallagher Brothers are hot, and these do even make good music!




#9) O like Onions

Onions can taste pretty hot, but having an onion-breath on a first date is definitely a "Not-Hot"

#8) O like Olympic Hero



#7) O like Oesophagus

That's the tube from your mouth to your stomach and it can get pretty hot in there after a bowl of chilli or curry :)

#6) O like Omnipotency
Come on, who wouldn't take the chance if he/she could have it for a day? That's why I like the movie "Bruce Allmighty"!

#5) O like Optimism

Makes a man sexy, as well as good odour!

#4) O like Oral

Well, just give your fancy free scope ...

#3) O like Ozon Layer

At least it absorbs over 90% of the suns high frequency ultraviolett light. Good job, mate!

#2) O like Hot-O


He's one of my blogging buddies and he is literally "Hot-O". Check out his Blog ThaCash.com about making money online and achieving world domination!


#1) O like Opulence

Yeah! Being rich is definitely hot, hot, hot!!!
That's why I participate in HotO's "Win some cash" contest. It's quite easy to enter, you just have to write a post and link back, a paypal account is necessary. For further details and instructions, visit him at Win some cash @ ThaCash.com. And what makes it even better - there will be 3 cash-prizes randomly alloted and 1 extra prize for funniest post. So, what are you waiting for? Get started!!!

We soooo totally suck!

So, he did it:

Congratulations to Michael Phelps - 8 gold medals and the record!
With his 8th medal tonight Michael Phelps beat Mark Spitz' record of 7 from 1972 and wrote olympic history.



By contrast all german athletes together achieved 9 gold medals. At least one more, though I think we're lucky that he just started in 8 events, otherwise he might have tied or even worse. Now excuse me please I have to pack my suitcase and get ready to emmigrate ...

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I hate Paul Potts!!!

I really do! Though it's not his fault, but I just can't see his face anymore.

I mean at first I was impressed, I assume nobody expected this guy to sing like that. Then I read a bit about him, found out the he took singin lessons for quite a while - even in Italy - worked on his voice, but never thought about doing it for a living. All fine I thought, he's good and somehow it warms my heart that this poor guy won Britain's got Talent.
So far so good. But then it started. A phone company started to screen ads with his first appearance at BGT, about 100.000 times a day. Everytime I turn on the TV, I'm cannonaded with Nessun Dorma and I just can't hear it anymore. For everybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about watch here:



Touching, isn't it? But imagine hearing it all day long, it loses some of it's magic!

Anyway, the straw that breaks the camel's back is that everybody and especially lots of young people buy his CD, on which he sings classic music and all time favorites, though his abilities are ok, but not overwhelmingly good. He doesn't have technique, he will never be an opera singer - face it! But if you ask people if they knew which opera "Nessun Dorma" comes from, who composed it or if they ever heard Luciano Pavarotti sing it, they give you a bamboozled look! AAAArggghhhh!!!! And don't even ask if they know what it means ...

So here's my personal tribute to THE tenor:



Ciao Julia

The Royal Flush amongst Poker Schools

I know the BIG Poker hype is somehow over. About a year ago, literally E-V-E-R-Y-B-O-D-Y played Poker. And if it should happen that once a week i wasn't invited to join a Poker party in the evenings, I could easily spent the night in front of my computer, playing online.
Problem was - I was never good at it!
I never played for real money online and only for small sums with friends, otherwise I swear I would have lost a fortune. Honestly, if you ever want to mak money with this game - and there is a lot to be made - you have to learn Poker, not only play it for fun. Maybe I should have gone for professional help, something like a personal tutor - a PokerProfessor.

Poker Professor Strategy offers you this service, and what is even better - you get 150$ free to start with!
So what you're waiting for? Go, play!!



Tuesday, August 12, 2008

And the Oscar goes to ....

... or better said - I go to: Windsbach!

I just got the call today and I'm really happy. Windsbach is a lovely little village in Germany, near Nuernberg and I will spent the next two years teaching there.
These are some pictures of the school:





I'm sooooo excited, I just can't wait for school to start.

Love Julia

Monday, August 11, 2008

Last exit before ...

Hi folks!

As this is going to be my last big summer holiday before I become a member of the working class, I decided to spent a week at the beautiful Lake Chiemsee.



It is also called the "Bavarian Sea" though it's not the biggest Lake in Southern Germany - this would be Lake Constance. But if you look at the pictures you will understand where the nickname comes from ;)



We'll rent an appartment for a week, take our bikes, beach wear and enough supplies and switch off our cellphones. I hope this will strengthen my nerves for my upcoming task, which will start on September 16th.

Otherwise I feel well prepared for the job:

- lost 20 pounds and 2 dress sizes (yeah!)
- met a lot of new people and friends during the exams, who also start their teaching career in September - it's good to know your not alone!
- was allocated to a school district near my hometown, so I hopefully won't have to move

The only thing I still lack is one of those practical leatherbags, with lots of space for pens, books and folders. I like this one very much:



Unfortunately it costs 169,- Euros, I think I'll make it part of my Christmas wishlist.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to our little trip. I'll definitely take pictures and will give you a report how we spent the week. so come back if you're interested ;)

Love Julia




Saturday, August 9, 2008

Let's get it started ...

Hiho holks!

Ok, first things first ... things have changed a lot around here.

When I stopped blogging, lots of bloggers faced the "Google-dropped-my-pagerank-because-I-write-sponsored-posts-but-if-my-page-rank-is-low-I-won't-get-offers-to-write-sponsored-posts-anymore"-crisis. I wasn't into earning money via blogging, so the whole affair didn't affect me, but I was curious to see if Google would have that much power or if the blogging community would fight back.

Now we know ... Google's shameless attempt to control the market miserably failed. Luckily advertisers realized that not the Google-controlled page rank is of interest, but the traffic that a site has. Companies like www.entrecard.com and Bloggerwave reacted and offer possibilities to earn some money with your hobby.

Beside the revolutionary victory of the blogging
David against the global corporation Goliath,
the biggest benefit is the possibility to combine
good blogging and making money. You can blog
freely without worrying about your pagerank and
from time to time squeeze in a sponsored post.

At least this is what I'm going to do from now on ;)
I could use a little extra money, cause I want to
spend some of my holidays next year in the U.S.,
visiting Jason (see picture) together with my lovely Bald Guy.

Intersted, too? Then visit




Love Julia

Friday, August 8, 2008

I did it! I did it!

Yes it's true, I passed my exams!

After 6 months of learning and taking written and oral exams I finally made it. And from september on I will be working as a teacher. And you know what? I'm really looking forward to it!
I will teach kids between 5th (10/11 years old) and 9th (15/16 years old) grade in different subjects. Of course I will tell you about my new experiences as a full-time teacher. So make sure to stop by from time to time.

That's why I haven't been around for a (loooong) while, but now I'm back in buisness and I hope some of my old friends and lots of new people will join me on my rollercoaster ride through my life.

Greets Julia

P.S.: Of course I will join the fabulous "Thirsday Thirteen" again :)
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